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Friday, May 27, 2011

A Blue Moon Win: Loney Homers & Navarro Has A Game Winning Hit

We witnessed two very rare sights in tonight's game. A James Loney homerun and a game winning single by Dioner Navarro in the bottom of the 9th inning. Partial thanks to Clay Hensley who melted down in the bottom of the 9th, ahhhh it's nice to be on the other side of the meltdown for once. Rubby De La Rosa got his first career win. Congrats!

Jon Garland pitched a very good game, but his second win of the season will have to wait since he wasn't involved in the decision. He gives up two walks in the first inning to Ramirez and Morrison but then strikes out Dobbs to end the threat. Furcal and Ethier both strikeout against Vazquez in the bottom of the first and the Dodgers go down 1-2-3.

Garland has a nice 1-2-3 inning in the second. Then in the bottom half of the inning with two outs we expect to see the usual Loney dribbler or perhaps a shallow pop-out. Instead Loney mysteriously whallops a huge solo homerun to right field giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. When he returns to the dugout the other players sit quietly at first to mess with him, then explode in congratulations. They were just as amazed as we were since this was only Loney's second homerun of the season.

Both pitchers swap 1-2-3 innings in the 3rd.

In the 5th Furcal commits a throwing error which allows Buck to reach first safely. Casey Blake makes a nice play at third to rob Vazquez of a hit down the line. The Dodgers go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 5th.

The fish would tie the game up in the 6th when Garland gives up a lead off walk to Ramirez, Morrison singles, then Ramirez reaches third when Sanchez hits into a double play. Dobbs then singles in Ramirez, 1-1. Garland walks Stanton, Honeycutt visits the mound, then Gar gets Buck to pop-up to end the inning. In the bottom of the 6th, Andre Ethier smashes his 5th homer of the year, a solo shot, and gives the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.

In the top of the 7th, Garland allows Cousins to single and then is pulled out and Elbert is brought in. Elbert quickly gets Coghlin to hit into a double play to end the inning. Choate comes into pitch the 7th for the Marlins and strikes out Castro and gets Loney to do what he does best, hit a little dribbler. Web comes in next and gets Big Rod to pop-out.

Rubby De La Rosa, a.k.a Rubby the Rookie, is brought into pitch the 8th and 9th innings. He looks very nervous in the 8th and gives up a lead-off walk to Ramirez (his third walk of the game) who then steals second (Big Rod doesn't even attempt a throw). Morrison hits a line drive right at Loney for an out. Sanchez then singles Ramirez to third. Dobbs singles home Ramirez to tie up the game at 2 a piece. Then Stanton hits into a double play when Loney catches his pop-up in foul territory as he leans over the rail and then they double up Sanchez who makes a really bad TOOTBLAN and is caught between 3rd and home. The Dodgers go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 8th.

In the 9th, Rubby the Rookie strikes out Bonifacio and sends the fish down 1-2-3. Clay Hensley then comes into pitch the 9th for the Marlins and Blaker singles to lead off. Ethier singles to right field, and Blake takes third on the play when Stanton bumbles the ball in right field drawing the error. They intentionally walk Kemp to load the bases with nobody out. We all cringe as we see Donnie sending up Dioner Navarro to pinch hit. Miraculously Navarro slaps a single in and Blake comes home to score the game winning run!!

I'm not sure if the return of Casey Blake gave us some luck, or if it was Hensley's Broxtonesque 9th inning meltdown, but it was surely nice to see a win tonight! Tomorrow Hiroki Kuroda will go to the mound in a Saturday evening game at 7:10pm. Let's try to string some wins together Dodger fans! Go Blue:)